Our Glorious Dead

In times of war we are called upon to honour our glorious dead.

Indeed the memory of the fallen is used to raise our collective patriotic ire at anyone who does not support any military action. This has become known colloquially as “not supporting the troops.”

It does not matter if the cause they were fighting is just. If the people they killed were innocent. If the war they fought a sham. Honour must be paid.

Compare this to the all too common occurrence of women being killed by partners or strangers. Too often in both courts of justice and courts of opinion these women’s memories are not honoured but desecrated.

Excuses are made, she provoked him, she was dressed or acted provocatively or was a sex worker, she was out alone at night, she was the violent one.

On December 6th we mourn most especially for the 14 women who died at the hands of Marc Lepine. On this day we come together to honour the memories of “our glorious dead”. And there are others who come together also. Those who find comfort in the actions of Lepine, those who desecrate the memory of the fallen and who carry hatred toward all women.

Where are the political speeches and rhetoric for this war? Why are there no calls to support the troops of women daily fighting abuse, sexual assault, incest, rape, and a culture that stills places the macho as something just that little bit better?

Why is it that my daughter and others of her cohort can expect to fight the same battles against sexism and for reproductive rights that my generation did? Why is that she can expect to make less over her lifetime, have assaults against her be turned around to be her fault and have to jump through hoops should she at any time decide to exercise her right to control her reproduction?

Feminists are called man haters simply for wanting to ensure that they and the women after them will have the same rights as men. Yes there will be different rights such as those around pregnancy and childcare. Sadly childcare still being seen as a women’s issue and not a children’s rights issue. And yet the men who actually do hate women, who see rights around reproduction, childcare and other female specific realities, as women wanting greater rights than men, are given a pass. They are just good old boys, old fashioned, traditional. In fact such behaviour is often glorified.

The link is easily established since patriarchy openly advocates the natural inferiority of women and conversely the natural right of the male to rule the female. This powerdifferential, maintained by various social, political, legal and religious institutions renders women powerless globally. As a result women continue to be loyal to individual men in their lives, and to blame themselves when any trouble emerges. The patriarchy endeavours to command and dictate total conformity of women to the statusquo, glorifying it along with an implicit doubleedged message: ‘Be loyal, chaste … or else’. It is therefore not surprising that men continue to beat women as a function of the domination they exercise over women, a domination that is inherent in the very structure of societies that men have created in their own image. Violence against women, be it in the form of sexual harassment, violent pornography, rape, sexual abuse, incest or battering, is nothing but a manifestation of the sexist and patriarchal system of social control of women. {link}

In any war there are those who stand with the ‘enemy’ who think that by capitulating to their demands they will meet a kinder fate. However, studies of religious, ‘traditional’ homes do not bear that out;

Criminology studies have well documented, including a 1995 study appearing in the Journal of Psychology and Christianity, that the patriarchal conception of the family is the single best predictor of violence against both women and children.

Studies of battered women regularly show that the women who are most likely to continue staying in violent home situations themselves are the women who accept, in the words of the Baptist creed, “to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.” {link}

Soon we will honour our dead with roses and candles. And just as the Westboro Baptist Church pickets funerals, there will be those who will say enough already, who will opine that this was the work of one crazed individual, that it had nothing to do with feminism or that he didn’t kill enough women. People like this

Was surfin the tube tonight and i decided to look for feminazis to victimize. you looked like a particularily virulent one, so i dropped down to say the following.

Women in Canada, as in America, have all kinds of special rights, thanks to your constant troublemaking. You have special powers, you can say magic words to the system, like “I’m scared”, or straight up lie about something, and the man loses all his rights. So i dont know where you come off with all this bullshit that women are so persecuted, we both know thats only a tactic to gain all kinds of special rights, as if you dykes really need any more special rights.
now if you wanna talk about places where women have no rights, try just about any Muslim hellhole. but i see rather than go there, youd rather defend those subhumans with “Get out of Iraq” campaigns that only encourage the Muslim Terrorists, whether they be Al Qaeda ragheads or Iranian hezbollah camelfuckers.
Its fools like you that cause the problems between the sexes by trying to be something youll never be, no matter how many strap ons you shove up your sex partners hole.

tell me, whats the mortality rate for Dyke batterers of their sex partners, we know how violent bulldykes can be, dont we? Ive knocked out more than one in my lifetime, girl. and I’m proud of it too- if they wanna fight like a man, then theyre gonna get their jaw broke like a man.
Whats the chances of a young girl being targeted for recrutiment by dyke perverts?
Theres only one way to “feel like a woman”, you gotta be fucked by a man…maybe youve heard of it… I heartlily recommend it..its called heterosexual sex, but you deviants like to call it “rape”.you “guys” constantly confuse the two.
Anyways, i thought id just let you know whats up… ill be visiting a lot more of you feminazi beasts..today was your lucky day, next time it could be one of your beastmates.
DTQ. VIVE MARC LEPINE!

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
Edna St. Vincent Millay